Carpe Diem

A Story by Cierra

When a local investigator of the Miami, Florida PD begins investigating the murder of her boss' daughter, she begins to see life & death in a whole new way.

Carpe Diem Per Diem

By Cierra K Scott

"Forget your troubles, come on get happy. Better chase all your cares away.."

Those lyrics rang through my mind throughout the day and it seemed to continuously come on the radio, as if the universe were trying to tell me something.

“Shout hallelujah, come on get happy, get ready for the judgment day.."

My boss handed over a case file to me today, saying he couldn't take it because he knew the victim. I couldn't exactly take my eyes off of his, trying to pierce that nerves-of-steel demeanor he held. When I opened the case file, I was shocked; the victim was his daughter. The fact that he wasn't breaking down in tears had me worried. I've heard of people not wanting to cry in front of others, but if it were my child, I wouldn't be able to think, much less speak to anyone around me. "Sir? Are you okay?" My voice cracked and trembled as my words pierced his ears. "I'm fine. Please, just do your job." As he walked passed me, I could tell he was struggling to keep up on weak knees. The thought of losing a daughter or son didn't quite hit me as hard as it did him. Family was a numb subject for me. They didn't exist to me anymore.

Reading through the case files, looking at all the pictures, I struggled to put together a reason as to why anyone would want to kill this girl. Interviewing friends and other relatives proved futile. None of them spoke ill of her, nor did anyone know who would ever want to kill her. As far as I knew, she was your typical goody-good girl who only wanted to please everyone else. So who would want her dead?

Case File 103.00.2099.39

Subject Name: Carla Elizabeth Mundane

Wound Tracks: Blunt force trauma to the cranium; stab wound along traquea

Subject found in the park at approximately 12:26am by park ranger.

My stomach began to turn as I continued reading. This poor girl suffered a pretty harsh and painful death. I noticed in one of the pictures, she had a bag with the words, "Carpe Diem" embroidered on it.

"The sun is shining, come on get happy. The Lord is waiting to take you hand."

That damn song! My hand swung and hit the radio, knocking it to the floor before I could stop my unpredictable reflex. I couldn't stand listening to it one more time. At least, not while I was working on investigating the death of my boss' daughter. As I huffed over my now, broken radio and the constant stress weighing on my shoulder over this case, my phone began to buzz.

“Mundane.”

“Jeydon, it's Kyle. We've got a suspect in interrogation.”

“I'm on my way.”

Hanging up the phone, I gathered the file and the rest of my things and headed out the door. When I started up the car, I was relieve to hear something else playing on the radio besides that song. I swear, hearing it one more time would make my ears bleed. Arriving at the police department, Kyle met me outside. “We've got him, Jeydon. We've got him!” His excitement pleased me, but there was a part of me that couldn't share the same excitement he had. What if it wasn't the killer? It would only prove disappointment for everyone.

Walking up to the interrogation room, I saw my boss, staring into the one-way window at the suspect. “His name is Jason Colt. Twenty years old, was a friend of my daughter's.” The pain and rage on his face proved that he was doing everything he could to prevent himself from making a scene or possibly killing the kid in the interrogation room. Without saying a word, I moved past him and walked into the room, sitting down in front of Jason. “My name is Jeydon Mundane. I'm a detective for the Miami Police Department.” As I introduced myself, Jason turned away with a hostile look. “Wanna tell me what happened?” He was silent, refusing to answer me or look me in the eye.

Observing his behavior, my train of thought was interrupted when a knock to the door broke the silence. When I got up, Jason turned to look at him as I took my leave, closing the door tightly behind me. “We're not going to get anything out of this kid.” Kyle grinned to me, “Maybe we don't have to. We recovered this from his place of work.” Kyle held up an evidence bag, that contained a book bag similar to Carla's but with the words, “Per Diem” embroidered on the front. It had some crimson stains along the bottom, like it had been sitting in a puddle of blood, and a failed attempt to wash it off. “Per Diem... Didn't Carla's have Carpe Diem on the front?” I was starting to have hope that this kid was, in fact, the killer. “We wont know for sure until we've run the sample for an exact DNA match. But it looks that way. He ran when we went to question him about her at work, so it only made him look more guilty.”

With a nod, I walked back into the interrogation room. Jason seemed to be breaking out in a sweat. “A little nervous there?” Throwing the evidence bag on the table, his eyes immediately turned away. “How much you wanna bet we'll match that blood to Carla?” He was still silent, refusing to talk. Sitting down in the chair once more, a smile creased upon my lips in some weird, sadistic way. Pulling the case file out, I laid the pictures out in front of him and leaned forward on the table. “What did do, Jason? Did she refuse to sleep with you or something?” “No!” Well, there it was. I had struck a nerve and the boy finally spoke. “Then tell me what happened, Jason. I can't help you if you don't help me.” Silence filled the room again, but this time, it wasn't for long. He let out a shaky sigh and finally turned to face me, “It was an accident.” The remorse on his face was real, but the anger seemed to be more present than the remorse.

“An accident, Jason? You stabbed her in the neck.”

“She was going to leave me! I snapped. My anger got the best of me! I couldn't... I couldn't stop myself.”

My eyes turned to look at the one way window that my boss was looking through. Although I couldn't see him, I'm sure he could see the sincerity on my face. There was a moment when I thought for sure, he'd barge through that door with his gun drawn and pointing at the boy. Luckily, that didn't happen. Before I could speak, Kyle began again, “The bags... We got them together. Carpe Diem, Per Diem.. Seize the day, by the day. We promised each other that with each day that goes by, we would always seize the moments we were together.” My stomach turned to the sickening love story. It was like 'Romeo and Juliet', except this time, Juliet wanted out of the equation. “That's a cute story and all, but you've got an angry father on the other side of that wall, and a hefty jail sentence to your name.” With that, I stood up, nodding to the officer in the room to arrest him.

Walking out of the room, my boss was still standing there, watching as the boy was arrested. “A part of me isn't satisfied with this.” His voice was shaken and distraught. The tears he had been holding back all day were finally surfacing to his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. “No one would be satisfied with this. But our job isn't to take revenge, sir. We leave that to the true judge upstairs.” My words seemed strike something because I could see the faint smile that nudged across his face. My hand that had been placed on his shoulder as a strategy of comfort moved back to my side as I took my leave.

When the paper work was done and the night finally ended, I was ready to go home. Starting the car, the radio came on.

"Forget your troubles, come on get happy. Better chase all your cares away.. Shout hallelujah, come on get happy, get ready for the judgment day.."

Suddenly it dawned on me. Judgment day; the day the world would end. In my mind, I saw at as the day we came to our last few words, our last breath, not necessarily the day the world would come to an halt. We should seize the day, every day we live, because one day, everyone will have their own judgment day.

© 2014 Cierra

Author's Note

This is an old story I did back in my junior year of high school. I edited it a little bit, but I think it's good enough to share...

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Reviews

NoelHC

This is a captivating read, well done. A few small typos and spelling issues in places that could clean up nicely.
I think you could develop this into a short crime novel quite easily.

One question, I am confused with the last name. The boss is Mundane, your lead character answers the phone "Mundane" and introduces herself to the suspect as Jeydon Mundane, and the victim, the bosses daughter is Carla Mundane.

I believe Jeydon may want to change her last name if you do take this story further.
But a very well written cop story.

Posted 10 Years Ago

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10 Years Ago

I never even noticed that... they aren't suppose to have the same last name. I'll have to go back an.. read more

10 Years Ago

You are welcome, I think you should pursue this story, it looks like a slam dunk case, against Jason.. read more

10 Years Ago

I'll think about this! Perhaps I'll do that when I'm struggling with my novel piece. (Which isn't on.. read more

Lyn Anderson

It is a pretty good story - I noticed bast (past) as a typo. If you were thinking of reworking this for contest or publishing, editors and judges are not fond of first person in non-biographical writing.